The present invention relates in general to electrical circuit testing or identifying devices for identifying individual conductors in a multiple conductor system such as in a cable or extending through a conduit pipe, and more particularly to a portable probe type electrical conductor-identifying device for identifying individual conductors or different phase conductors in a plural conductor array or conduit, having a single probe with a light system capable of identifying the individual conductors.
Heretofore, many devices have been proposed for identifying different cable wires or individual conductors in a plural conductor cable or in a plural wire conduit, where it becomes necessary or desirable at relatively remcte opposite ends of the cable or conduit to be able to identify the particular wires or conductors for installation, repair or modification of electrical circuits, telephone lines, and similar applications. Various devices have been proposed in prior patents for achieving identification of the individual cable wires by various colored lights, or lights activated in a different manner or allocated to specific individual wires, and in some cases identification has been indicated by different audio signals. For example, in Jones U.S. Pat.No. 1,738,710, a plurality of differently colored lights are connected to the individual wires or conductors at one end of the multi-conductor system, and the conductors are individually energized. In the Parmenter U.S. Pat. No. 2,488,556, the MacGregor U.S. Pat. No. 2,768,428, the Miller et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,953,744, the Rollins et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,476,888, the Scott U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,856, the Smith U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,552, and the Kurata et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,161, cable wire identifying systems are disclosed involving distinctive lights signalling the individual wires in various ways, and in the Fisher et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,133,384, the individual conductors are identified by different audio signals. However, none of these disclose a circuit having the simple identifying probe arrangement associated with a portable, battery energized voltage supply and switch control unit of the present invention.
An object of the present invention is the provision of a novel light emitting individual wire or conductor indicator probe and voltage supply unit assembly wherein the probe has a pair of light emitting diodes (LEDs) of different color and is capable of distinctively identifying a number of individual conductors greater than the number of LEDs in the probe.
Another object of the present invention is the provision of a novel conductor identifying detector probe and voltage supply unit as described in the immediately preceding paragraph, wherein electrical circuitry is provided to enable distinctive identification of as many as five different conductors in a multi-conductor cable or conduit by different activation of the two LEDs in the probe.
Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment thereof.